Picsart

Picsart is an Armenian-American technology company based in Miami, Florida, United States and Yerevan, Armenia that develops the Picsart suite of online photo and video editing applications, with a social creative community. The platform allows users to take and edit pictures and videos, draw with layers, and share the images on Picsart and other social networks. It is one of the world's most popular apps, with reportedly more than 1 billion downloads across 180 countries.^[1]

Picsart

Company type	Private company
Industry	Internet
Founded	2011; 13 years ago (2011)
Founder	Hovhannes Avoyan Artavazd Mehrabyan Mikayel Vardanyan
Headquarters	Miami, Florida, United States Yerevan, Armenia
Key people	Hovhannes Avoyan (CEO) Artavazd Mehrabyan (CTO) Craig Foster (CFO) Mikayel Vardanyan (Chief Product Officer)
Products	Photo and video editing suite
Total equity	$1.5 billion
Number of employees	1,000
Website	picsart.com

The company was founded in 2011.^[2]

History

Picsart was founded in November 2011 by Armenian entrepreneur Hovhannes Avoyan, and Armenian programmers Artavazd Mehrabyan and Mikayel Vardanyan.^[3] Its founders developed the first Picsart application as a stand-alone tool to help people alter a photo image on their phone, and additional capabilities were added over time.^[4] The first PicsArt app launched in November 2011 on Android devices.^[5]

In January 2013, Picsart for iOS was released for the iPhone.^[5] In May, it was released for the iPad.^[6] In late 2013, Picsart photo editor became available for Windows Phone.^[7]

In January 2014, Picsart became available on devices supporting Windows 8.^[8]

By April 2015, the company reportedly had seen 250 million downloads for its iOS and Android apps, and had 60 million monthly active users.^[9]

In 2016, Picsart reached 75 million monthly active users.^[10]

In 2017, Picsart launched Remix Chat, a messaging system where users can share images directly or in groups and edit them collectively with friends.^[11] The company also launched a feature to let its user community create and share custom stickers for free. Picsart also announced that it reached 90 million monthly active users.^[12]

In July, Russian supermodel and philanthropist Natalia Vodianova joined Picsart to help increase social engagement and activism within the Picsart photo community.^[13] In October, the company reached 100 million monthly active users and began announcing partnerships with major consumer brands and celebrities.^[14]

In March 2019, Picsart reached 130 million monthly active users.^[15] Also in 2019, the company was ranked by app analytics company Sensor Tower as the #4 top grossing social photo and video editing app, after Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube.^[16]

In January 2020, the company launched an artificial intelligence lab in conjunction with the American University of Armenia.^[17] Also in July, the company reported over 1 billion app downloads to date.^[18]

On August 26, 2021, Picsart CEO Avoyan announced that the company had raised $130 million in Series C funding from Softbank, Sequoia, G Squared, Tribe Capital, Graph Ventures and Siguler Guff & Company with a company valuation nearing $1.5 billion, making it the first tech unicorn born in Armenia.^[1]

In February 2022, Picsart acquired Code Republic, a learning platform, to be part of its education division, Picsart Academy.^[19]

Also in February, the company launched a new API program called Picsart for Developers, allowing partners to implement Picsart features on their own platforms.^[20]

In March 2022, Picsart released AI fonts, a new collection of fonts created with generative AI.^{[21] [22]}

In November 2022, Picsart added an AI Image Generator and an AI Writer to its platform, which make images and copy using generative AI.^{[23] [24][25]}

The company launched its AI Avatar feature in December 2022.^[26][27] In January 2023, Picsart launched a new standalone app called SketchAI, which uses generative AI to turn sketches into digital art.^[28][29]

Products

Picsart develops mobile apps, and a set of web browser tools for editing videos and photos. The app and website tools support social networking activities. A superb feature of this app is the AI image generator tool to convert our text into an image, as well as a background eraser to erase unwanted objects and replace the background. Its unique filters like blur, retro, VHS, or Y2K create dramatic images like a piece of art.

The apps include:

• Picsart Photo & Video Editor - a photo and video editing app with tools to add filters and various effects, with social network integration. The app is free to use and offers in-app purchases of stickers and other graphic elements.^[30]
• Picsart Animator - an animation app allowing the creation of cartoon videos, GIFs and other animation.^[31]
• Picsart Color - a drawing and painting app^[32]
• Picsart GIF & Sticker Maker - an animated GIF and sticker generator^[12]
• SketchAI - an app that turns drawings and photos into digital art using generative AI ^[33][34]

The apps are available on iOS, Android, and Windows mobile devices.^[35]

Picsart's web browser tools for PCs have the same features as the Picsart Photo & Video app, but are designed for web browsers on PCs running Windows 8.1 or higher.^[36]

Built-in social networking features with the apps and website tools allow users to comment, favorite, and follow others using the tools.^[30]

Operations

Picsart is headquartered in Miami, Florida.^[37] The company has additional offices in Yerevan, Armenia; Beijing; Moscow; Tokyo; Los Angeles; Glasgow, Scotland; and Bangalore, India.^[38][37] In March 2019, the company reported that 70 percent of its then 360 employees worked in engineering and product development, and half of those employees were female.^[14]

Funding

As of August 2021, the company had received $195 million in cumulative venture funding from Sequoia Capital, Insight Partners, and others, giving it a reported post-money valuation of roughly $1.5 billion.^{[39][40][41][9][1]}

See also

• VSCO
• Prequel
• Animaker
• Fotor

References

1. "Picsart Is Tech's Newest Unicorn — And Adobe Should Be Afraid". Forbes. August 26, 2021. Retrieved September 9, 2021.
2. "Photo editing app Picsart will use $20M funding round for Asia expansion". Silicon Valley Business Journal. April 20, 2016. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
3. "Picsart Gold – Super Advanced Photo Editor App". Newsgaze. April 24, 2020. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
4. "Finding The Art In Building A Business". Fast Company. April 18, 2013. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
5. "Photo app PicsArt expands its focus from Android to iOS". Fierce Wireless. December 17, 2012. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
6. "AppAdvice App of the Week for January 7 2013". Windows Central. January 7, 2013. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
7. "Picsart photo editor jumps from Phone to Windows 8.1 and wins our affection". Windows Central. June 25, 2014. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
8. "Picsart expands its Windows Phone 8 availability". Windows Central. January 7, 2014. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
9. "Picsart, a mobile photo-editing app, to raise $15 million". Fortune. April 13, 2015. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
10. "San Francisco-based photo editing app Picsart will use $20M funding round for Asia expansion - Silicon Valley Business Journal". Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal. April 20, 2016. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
11. "Edit. Share. Repeat. Picsart adds new chat feature to encourage remixing photos". Digital Trends. February 21, 2017. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
12. "Picsart's custom stickers (and export option) could make basic effects look boring". Digital Trends. March 21, 2017. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
13. "Natalia Vodianova Joins Picsart As The Head Of Aspiration". MustTechNews. June 22, 2017. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
14. "Creative-focused app Picsart hits 100M MAUs". TechCrunch. October 31, 2017. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
15. "Picsart hits 130 million MAUs as Chinese flock to its photo-editing app". TechCrunch. March 20, 2019. Retrieved October 9, 2020.^{[permanent dead link]}
16. "Creative-focused app Picsart hits 100M MAUs". Sensor Tower. August 2, 2019. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
17. "AUA and Picsart Announce the Launch of the AI Lab". The Armenian Mirror-Spectator. January 9, 2020. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
18. "What does acquiring 1 billion users teach you about mobile user retention?". John Koetsier. August 1, 2020. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
19. "Wednesday Digest: USF's biggest gift ever; S.F. developer buys Berkeley apartments". San Francisco Business Times. February 2, 2022. Retrieved April 22, 2022.
20. "Picsart brings its creative tools to developers with new API". Techcrunch. February 9, 2022. Retrieved April 22, 2022.
21. Kulp, Patrick (March 16, 2022). "Visual Editor Picsart Launches AI-Powered Font Generator". www.adweek.com. Retrieved 2023-02-13.
22. Navlakha, Meera (2022-03-24). "Picsart is using AI to create new fonts". Mashable. Retrieved 2023-02-13.
23. Kulp, Patrick (November 3, 2022). "Picsart Now Lets Users Generate Images and Text With AI". www.adweek.com. Retrieved 2023-02-13.
24. Malik, Aisha (2022-11-02). "Picsart adds an AI Image Generator and AI Writer to its suite of creative tools". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2023-02-13.
25. Moreno, Johan. "Picsart Adds AI-Powered Image Generation And Copywriting Tools". Forbes. Retrieved 2023-02-13.
26. Growcoot, Matt (2022-12-24). "Picsart Launches AI Selfie Generator Allowing Users to Create Unique Avatars". PetaPixel. Retrieved 2023-02-13.
27. "Picsart adds AI Avatar tool, here is how to use it". FE Tech Bytes. 26 December 2022. Retrieved 2023-02-13.
28. Navlakha, Meera (2023-01-06). "Picsart's new SketchAI app is transforming images into digital art". Mashable. Retrieved 2023-02-13.
29. Wiggers, Kyle (2023-01-05). "Picsart's AI-powered SketchAI app turns images and outlines into digital art". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2023-02-13.
30. "Picsart (for iPhone) Review". PC Mag. October 5, 2016. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
31. "Here are the top 9 Google Play apps of 2017 for enterprise use". TechRepublic. October 5, 2016. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
32. "Picsart Color Paint app update brings improved video export, brush previews and support for more languages". Nerds Chalk. March 7, 2017. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
33. Wiggers, Kyle (2023-01-05). "Picsart's AI-powered SketchAI app turns images and outlines into digital art". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2023-02-13.
34. Navlakha, Meera (2023-01-06). "Picsart's new SketchAI app is transforming images into digital art". Mashable. Retrieved 2023-02-13.
35. Graham, Jefferson (March 1, 2014). "Scribble on your pics with versatile Picsart photo editor". USA Today. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
36. Saleem, Hammad (November 30, 2001). "Picsart is an excellent and popular photo editing app for Windows 8.1". WinBeta. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
37. Portero, Ashley (February 24, 2022). "Picsart moves corporate headquarters to Miami Beach as part of global expansion". South Florida Business Journal. Retrieved April 22, 2022.
38. "Armenian businesses record success on international level". Armen Press. July 27, 2020. Retrieved April 22, 2022.
39. "Picsart, A Photo Editing App With 200M Downloads, Lands $10M From Sequoia". TechCrunch. February 5, 2015. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
40. "PicsArt Raises $15M To Build A Community Around Photo Editing". TechCrunch. June 4, 2015. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
41. "Photo app PicsArt gets $20M to grow its user base in Asia". TechCrunch. April 20, 2016. Retrieved April 20, 2016.